The Headlines

A Commissioner for Animal Welfare?

There may be a new job posting from the EU Commission soon: A Commissioner for Animal Welfare. New polls suggest a majority of Europeans feel that the EU has not done enough to prioritize animal welfare or be transparent in its animal welfare policies.Over the last few months, more than 140,000 citizens and 152 Members of European Parliament (MEP) have joined the #EUforAnimals movement to raise awareness of animal welfare policies. One of the proposed solutions is the creation of the Commissioner position who would become responsible for "health, food safety and animal welfare."As the EU observer notes: "having an EU Commissioner [...] would guarantee that there are adequate resources for this topic and that a specific Directorate would deal with both its ethical and its scientific aspects. It would also ensure that the EU institutions would be more transparent and accountable when they deal with this issue."

Hopefully the EU commission responds favorably to the call to action.

D.N.Air

Scientists have developed a new method to identify animals that have recently passed by a region: by vacuuming environmental DNA (eDNA) which is shed by organisms into their surroundings from things such as dead skin cells or feces. The process can be used to monitor biodiversity of animals or track rare species in the wild.If you're thinking this sounds a little far fetched, even the researchers agree. Elizabeth Clare, a molecular ecologist at York University in Toronto admitted that it is "a bit of a crazy idea. We are literally sucking DNA out of the sky."Two teams of researchers - one in the U.K. and one in Copenhagen - independently came to similar conclusions. And instead of rushing to publish their research, the teams joined forces to study the technology and submitted at the same time as evidence of independent scientific replication. Don't you just love when people come together for a common purpose?

Quick hits:

Here are the stories that caught our eyes this week and are worth a read: 2021’s Most Fascinating Animals [New York Times]Earth is running low on wildlife. Plants will be next. [Vox]Pathologists at Atlantic Veterinary College in Charlottetown performing necropsy on dolphin that stranded in P.E.I. [Saltwire]

Trivia

Name that animal:

Here are your clues:

• Discovered in 1992

• Has 2 straight horns on its head

• Native to the forests of Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam

Your weekly dopamine

Nobody pops a balloon like Twinkie the Jack Russell Terrier who has the Guinness World Record for the fastest time to pop 100 balloons by a dog.

#BettyWhiteChallenge

Don't forget that tomorrow is the #BettyWhiteChallenge. On what would have been Betty's 100th birthday, let's take a moment to give back to animal shelters. Our Chief Barketing Officer, Bowie, came to us from the

Guelph Humane Society

so consider donating to help others just like like him find their forever home.

Here's Bowie proud of the stick he found:

Trivia Answer

Meet the saolo, aka the 'Asian Unicorn'.

After being discovered and documented for the first time in 1992, the saolo population has declined since 1992 - largely due to commercial wildlife poaching in Vietnam. Recent reports estimate the population is down to just 100 animals left. The already elusive animal has become so rare that no biologist has seen one in the wild, and has only been caught on camera a handful of times.

As the saolo population has become critically endangered,

scientists are stepping up their search

for the mysterious creatures in hopes of saving them. Perhaps they can start sucking eDNA out of the air to help?

Photo caption courtesy of The Guardian: A saola photographed by a camera trap in Laos in 1999. Photographed by William Robichaud.

Let us know what you'd like to see in future editions of Weekend Rounds by replying to this email.